Damage to the stern area of a Civil Guard boat after the impact with a drug boat this Thursday in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz).
A drug boat collided this Thursday morning with a patrol boat of the Civil Guard of Algeciras, when the agents were trying to disperse a concentration of up to 11 semi-rigid boats that were sheltered in an area of the sea off the coast of Manilva (Málaga). . The impact, in which no injuries have been reported, occurred in front of La Alcaidesa beach (La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz), after one of the drug traffickers' boats tried to board the armed institute's boat while The rest of the boats fled, as reported by the professional association AUGC and confirmed by three police sources to EL PAÍS. The incident only resulted in slight damage to the stern of the patrol boat.
The intervention of the Civil Guard occurred after the mayor of Manilva, José Manuel Fernández (PP), alerted the Marbella Command on Wednesday of the presence of a group of 11 drug boats that were surrounded by each other in front of to Sabinillas beach, in Manilva. “They told me that they had no means and until today [this Thursday] they have not been able to go,” explained Fernández, who traveled by land to the point on the coast where the illegal boats were stationed after learning that the Armed Institute at I could finally intervene. The arrival of the
Río Belelle
patrol boat , dependent on the Algeciras Maritime Service, caused some of the narco-boats—powerful semi-rigid boats more than ten meters in length and equipped with several outboard motors—to leave and disperse around the area.
The impact between one of the RIBs and the patrol boat occurred after one of the drug boats could not flee due to an apparent mechanical failure. The armed institute's boat headed towards the boat to try to apprehend it, but at least four other barges, "instead of leaving, started to protect it and hit [the Civil Guard]," explained a police source. “One of them wants to approach us from the beam [direction perpendicular to the boat] and she ends up hitting us with her bow on our fin,” explained another agent familiar with what happened. Official sources from the Civil Guard and the Government Delegation in Andalusia have denied having knowledge of both the intervention and the crash.
The event resulted in no injuries among the officers occupying the patrol boat, which usually intervenes in services with up to four occupants. The damage has been limited to some damage to the stern area of the boat, made of aluminum and fiber, more than 20 meters in length and much greater strength and size than the semi-rigid boats used by drug traffickers. "Lucky that the civil guards were in this type of boat and not in the aluminum one [one of shorter length and greater speed that the Armed Institute uses for persecutions], because, if that were the case, we would be talking about greater damage," they denounced. from the AUGC in Cádiz. “If we do not see more cases like these, it is because the opportunity does not arise because [the drug traffickers] either flee or we do not appear directly because we do not have the means,” they added from the same association.
The drug boats had been in the Malaga area of the Strait of Gibraltar for “a week,” according to the mayor of Manilva. “They have been in the municipality of Casares, but they did not enter ours until this Wednesday. They were stationed there so calmly,” denounces the councilor. It was then when, alerted by the Local Police of his municipality, he notified the Command. Fernández assures that the drug traffickers have now moved to the area of Estepona and Marbella.
The police blockade and the illegalization of drug boats since 2018 caused a change in the way drug traffickers operate. Since then, these boats have remained on the high seas for months, waiting to be able to carry out the hashish caches and assisted by a new link in the drug trade, the petaquero, who brings them food, fuel and changes in sailors. However, when storms hit the Strait, as is happening these days, the RIB skippers are forced to take refuge near the coast.
A similar combination of rough seas, concentration of drug boats and aggressive response occurred on the afternoon of February 9 in the port of Barbate, with a much worse outcome. On that occasion, a drug boat passed over the small zodiac in which six agents were traveling to try to dissuade the drug traffickers sheltered at the mouth of the port. The attack, classified as murder by the court investigating the case, resulted in the death of agents Miguel Ángel González and David Pérez, and left the other four injured. On that occasion, the balance of forces was reversed: it was the deceased agents who were in inferiority, aboard a small semi-rigid.
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